Dwell In Unity

When you need to remember — that You're still my Shepherd.

You can be tired in a way that has nothing to do with enemies and everything to do with the people who are supposed to be on your side. The brothers and sisters. The family. The little church. The friend group that should feel like rest and instead feels like another negotiation. You are not bitter — you are worn down from how much energy "together" has been costing. Unity among brethren is not the bonus level — it is where God commanded the blessing, and where life forevermore is poured out like dew.

Three verses. That is the whole prayer. "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" Two adjectives — good and pleasant. He is naming what it is when it actually happens: rare, beautiful, and right. Then the first picture: "It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments." That is the priestly anointing oil — the consecration that ran from the head all the way to the hem. When brothers dwell in unity, what flows over the head soaks the whole body. Nobody is left dry. Then the second picture: "As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion." Mount Hermon's dew was famous — heavy, mountain-cold, life-giving in a dry land. He is saying unity is that kind of soaking. Quiet, overnight, sustaining. Then the line that anchors it: "For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." There — meaning where unity is. The blessing has an address. He commands it where His people dwell together rightly.

• Right now, name one brother or sister you have been holding at arm's length — and pray for them out loud, asking God for unity that He can pour blessing onto. • Write this down: "Where have I been treating unity with my people like the bonus level instead of the place where He commands the blessing?" • Repeat this line when the friction of "together" wears you out: "There the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore."

Stop. Breathe. Let the picture of dew soaking the mountains overnight reach what "together" has parched in you, then tell Him exactly where you want unity restored — out loud if you can.

God, You said it is good and pleasant when brethren dwell together in unity — and I have not been treating it like it was either. Forgive me for the small grudges, the convenient distance, the slow drift from people You have set me near. Pour the oil from the head down to the skirts of the garment — let what You are doing in one of us soak the rest of us. Send the dew of Hermon onto the dry parts of how we have been together, and command the blessing where we are willing to dwell together rightly. Give us life forevermore in this house, in this family, in this people. You're still my Shepherd.

There the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.